The Reward
by AthersHand
Summary: A tunnel rat engineer working for Wey-Yu has his life thrown into chaos when he is drafted onto a Wey-Yu military vessel. It is here that his life takes its twists and turns as he somehow ends up on the vessels intended planet for a xenomorph extermination, where he will find something that gives a new meaning to a promise. Rated M just for safety in future chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Space is cold, really cold and extremely hot at the same time when facing a star. It felt like Xander was in a sauna and a freezer at the same time, as much to his displeasure he had to suffer this because it was his job. Well not really of job more like forced child labor, you see Xander worked on Weyland-Yutani interplanetary transports. Currently he was working outside the ship on a broken transceiver that took damage from a small asteroid. He hated this part of his "job" being forced to EVA to fix damaged parts of the ship's hull. He always wondered why they would make him EVA when an android could do it just fine but then he remembers the same answer, every time the same answer. He was the ships Tunnel Rat, the ships non-existent all-knowing engineer.

By non-existent Xander meant that no one on board the ship knew he was there, just the Captain, first officer, chief engineer, and the chief medical officer. No-one else knew that a 17-year old kid traveled throughout the ship's via hidden tunnels fixing damaged equipment, minor hull breaches, and the periodical trip to the engines to stop them from overloading before the other engineers could even find out. Sure the other engineers could fix those problems but they all had years of experience and were all "invaluable" as they were called, Xander was just some kid who happened to master engineer and was expendable by Wey-Yu standards.

Sometimes Xander kind of hated that his worked-obsessed father made him read the entire blueprints and layouts of multiple cars, boats, planes, jets, spaceships, hell he even made him memorize the entire building plans for a particle accelerator to ensure that Xander would get a high paying job with Wey-Yu engineers, but every time Xander remembered that was the best his father could do since his mom died in child birth and his dad had to provide for both of them for all those years.

"Done, the transceiver should be up and running again Don" Xander said over his com.

"I told you to call me Chief you snot nose brat and yes the transceiver is working again. Now get back in here the waste disposal system has clogged up again and I want it fixed before we dock with the Roman or your ass is grass."

"Ok, Don"

Xander chuckled as he switched off his com. He really loved to mess with Don or "Chief" as he wanted to be called. Don always had a problem with a 17-year old and the ship who possible knew more than him probably because he had a massive god complex.

Xander entered the airlock, and took off his space suit, look to see if anybody was around then moved into the connecting hallway and moved to a panel that had a small, faint white wrench on it, the sign of a Tunnel entrance. He heard faint footsteps heading his way from down the hall, Xander quickly pulled of the panel and crawled inside and put the panel back before the footsteps passed. He turned and began to crawl toward the storage level were his "room" was, it was about a 15 minute trip with how Xander had to be quite and that the tunnels were at times confusing even to someone who travel them every day.

He arrived at his "room" in the storage level that was just an extra mattress and pillow, tarp, small lamp, old mini-frig, the various manuals and blueprints of the ship, and a photo of his late was about to hit the sack when he remembered that Don was expecting him to fix the waste disposal system so he got up walked over to a small closet and pulled out a full body suit that said "Tunnel Rat WD" WD for waste disposal. After putting and his suit he enter the tunnels. The tunnels were always tight on space but with the suit on he could barely move easily. Xander looked on into the tunnels, they were dark he could barely see but he continued on the waste disposal. He really hated this part of the "job" but he had to do it was his forced duty as a Tunnel Rat and Xander remembered how he became one. He remembered the day it happened, the day his father "sold" him.

Xander was 13-years old when the Wey-Yu men came to his house, they said they were there to offer him a job when turned 18 but that they would take him to be trained for it. They said that he would be taken to a Tech school for proper training, where he'd be living amongst other similar students and would be given a high position in The Company's engineering division after he graduated. Xander jumped at the chance with no knowledge that it was a setup, or that his dad sold him into Wey-Yu forced labor in order to pay the bills and debts he accumulated. Xander became aware of the trap and soon as he stepped into the car were one of the men sedated him, where he woke up he didn't know but he knew that Wey-Yu would become his new home. So for two years he was trained in ship engineering, part construction and replacement, and engine operations. They made him learn how to crawl through the hidden tunnels quickly and quietly, very rarely did he see another person besides his instructors but was able to find out that mostly every ship had a tunnel rat usually someone who owed high debts to Wey-Yu. When he was 15 he was assign to his current ship the Tombstone. Everyone hated the name because it brought on ominous feeling.

Xander drifted in his memories until he reached waste disposal and automatically saw the problem, too much food was stuck on the sides of the shaft and caused a block up so Xander pulled out his plasma cutter and sliced the through the food blocked the waste fell through the disposal system.

"That was easier then I tho…" was all Xander could say before the ship wide intercom come on.

"Attention all crew this is Captain Anyo speaking, prepare for arrival and boarding with the Roman in 1 hour."

"I wonder why we're boarding with the Roman,"Xander thought "It's a military ship, I wonder what's going on?"


	2. Chapter 2

**AUTHORS NOTE: Thank you so much to the person who gave me my first review, it helped me get my confidence up to continue writing my first story. As chapter length goes I'll make it a priority to make them longer but I'm still in school, so I still need to do that homework so some chapters may be shorter than other depending on how make time I have. I'll try to update at least once a week if I can.**

Xander crawled back through the tunnels to his little home to change and get ready to fix any problem that might occur during the ships docking. He still couldn't figure out why the Roman had to dock with the Tombstone, they were only shipping science data and research materials to the outer colonies, what a military ship could need that for he didn't know but it had to be important.

In his room he grabbed his standard uniform, a brown jumpsuit with many pockets and a tool belt and headed to his own mini shower to clean up. After he stepped out of the shower he looked into the mirror and noticed his hair was getting a little long. He make a note to get it cut later, he didn't really mind the long hair it was just that it was unsafe and made him look sort of weird. Xander was a 17-year old about 5 foot ten inches tall, thin, he wasn't buff but he wasn't weak due to all the moving around he had to do, he usually had short black hair with side burns that he did his best to keep trimmed, he also hard light blue eyes. After he change into his uniform he left his room and headed into the storage level, it was filled with crates of extra parts, supplies, or anything that they were shipping it was there. He went to the back left of the room to a small black crate that held off of his basic tools for an everyday job, his multi-head wrench, wire cutters, small plasma cutter, a flash light, mini crowbar, and a tape measure. As he headed back he saw back he saw a security guard doing a routine patrol came walking towards his direction, when the guard reached was Xander was the guard saw nothing but the same black crate and left the storage level thinking it was clear but the guard didn't notice the white wrench on the panel next to the crate.

Xander waited in the tunnels untold the guard left when his comm rang, he looked to see that he was being called to the. Medical ward.

"Strange, I've already had my yearly checkup," thought Xander, "I wonder what Doc wants"

Xander moved through the tunnels until he reached an intersection where he began to climb up 3 levels to reach the med-bay. When he arrived at the med-bay he gave his personal knock to let Doc know he was there and to get everyone else out.

"Come in Xander it's clear," Doc said.

"Thanks'" replied Xander as he came out of the wall, "watch 'a need?"

"Oh it's just a checkup thumps ate my records for safety reasons."

Xander always liked Doc, he was stereotypical doctor kind caring and always ready to help. Doc was in his late 50's so he had short white hair and small reading glasses, tall for his age around 6' 1" he'd been with Wey-Yu for about 32 years if Xander remembered correctly.

Doc pulled out his medical scanner and used it to check Xander's health and condition, and gave him a physical check as well a vision and hearing screening. Xander didn't know what was goon on sure he had medical checks up before but this one was going him whole 9 yards.

"H'mmm Vitals look good, hearing and vision are normal and you appear to be in top physical health." Doc said.

"Great Doc, hey what was this fo..." Xander said.

"ATTENTION, All hands this is Captain Anyo. Prepare for docking with the Roman in 5 minutes, I repeat docking with the Roman in 5 minutes." Boomed the intercom across the ship.

"Alright Doc sounds like I got to get going, have a nice day" Xander said as he disappeared into the wall hearing Doc wish a good day behind him.

He moved faster through the tunnels knowing that if there were any complications with the ships docking the docking tube could break off and kill hundreds of people on both ships and himself. He could hear people rushing and scurrying around to make sure everything was ready and secure, he saw to higher officers walking around giving orders to their lackeys as Xander called them. Xander arrived at the main airlock, a massive two door room where the docking tube would latch onto and where he would check to make sure all the connections were safe and secure. As Xander checked over the airlock connections he saw the Roman out of and access hatch. It was massive, way bigger than the measly little transport vessel Tombstone it was a full size Wey-Yu military ship. It had to have over 30 decks and at least a thousand crewmen on board, mostly Wey-Yu soldiers. The alarms went off and Xander moved back into the tunnels and then shut them for safety as the Roman's docking tube extended to the Tombstone, it was big mainly to transport vehicles or large amount of the ammunition and supplies Xander thought.

Once the docking tube reached the Tombstone Xander opened the tunnel again to check the latch connections for safety, upon examination he noticed the forth latch wasn't fully connected so he pulled the jack he kept there off the wall braced against the inner hull and cranked it until it made the full connection. Once that was completed he double checked all the connections again and once he found that they were all safe and secure he pulled out his comm and signaled the Captain that they were good to go. The alarms again went off warning the crew that the door were opening, Xander heard the creaking of the metals doors opening followed by the hiss of oxygen being vented into the docking tube, following the methodical footsteps of soldiers coming down the tube. The aligned the tube in the stereotypical guard fashion, looking straight at the adjacent soldier in the tube motionless. Hazard lights came to life in the docking bay as the Tombstone workers began to transport their cargo to the Roman, Xander saw cargo transport after cargo transport go into the Roman delivering the crates into the Romans storage level. This little event went on for about an hour, all with Xander still up in the tunnels watching, he wondered what was going on sure the Tombstone has made deliveries but they never had to go and transport cargo to another ship. He saw that no more cargo was being transported but that the cargo transported were returning to the Tombstone. As Xander look on he saw a group of soldiers coming down the docking tube, they were surrounding a man in a military uniform, Xander thought it might be the Roman's captain but wonder what he could possibly doing on the Tombstone. The Roman's captain walked swiftly through the docking bay followed by his guards to an elevator, the captain pressed a button and the elevators doors shut on the light above the elevator indicated that he was going up.

"That's strange, I wonder what the Roman's captain needs from Captain Anyo,"Xander questioned, "Probably to confirm the transfer of all the cargo, that's all"

Xander placed that jack back on the wall and headed back to his room. Half way there his comm rang, it was Don so Xander check to see what he needed, it was just a faulty lighting fixture, and he fixed it easy. Xander headed back to his room only to find that all his blueprints were gone, his photo of his late father was gone but all of his other items were still where he last left them. Before he could react his comm turned on.

"Tunnel Rat Xander, this is Captain Anyo Report to the my quarters immediately"

That was all Anyo said, so Xander got back into the tunnels and double timed it to the bridge. Xander wondered what Anyo needed him for, he was never called by the Captain directly. After the 20 minute trip he came to tunnel above Anyo's quarters. He gave his knocked and was given the all clear. He dropped to see Captain Anyo standing the by the Roman's captain. Anyo was a tall thin man, he was balding and had a lisp to his voice.

"Xander," Anyo said," This is Captain Thorne of the Wey-Yu military vessel the Roman."

Xander saw Thorne, he was a tall, broad shouldered man, and he had a bushy mustache with the standard military tough guy appearance. He had many stars on his uniform to show his rank, he stepped forward and extended hand to Xander.

"Hello Xander, I am Captain Thorne of The Roman" Thorne continued "By orders of Wey-Yu command you have be formally transferred to the Roman to serve as her new Tunnel Rat, effective immediately"

This came as a shock to Xander, he knew everything about the Tombstone he couldn't understand why he was needed on the Roman.

"I know you're confused but you are needed to serve as the new tunnel rat for the Roman in preparation for our next operation, don't worry I've taken the liberty of moving all of your valuable possessions to your new room on the Roman. Welcome aboard."

Before Xander could reply has was taken by Thorne out to the bridge and to the elevator, crewmen turned their heads when they saw a 17 year-old walking out of the bridge. When they reached t docking bay the elevator doors opened and he was escorted by the soldiers to the Roman, Xander saw Don with a smug smile on his face no doubt happy to be ridden of that annoying brat. As Xaner crossed over the docking tube he knew he was in for a trip on the Roman, he just hoped he was ready for it.


	3. Chapter 3

As Xander entered into the Roman with Thorne he noticed the interior of the ship, it wasn't anything like the Tombstone. The Roman's interior was amazing, it had easily marked signs giving directions, wall computer access panels, clean floors, and it was very well lit up. Thorne ushered Xander to the far left side of the rectangular room, passing by server crates that were just delivered.

"Thor. . . I mean Captain, I you don't mind me asking why did you need the Tombstone to deliver all this cargo sir?" questioned Xander.

"That's classified, but since you're new I am at liberty to tell you that the cargo we received will be used by the Roman's science types upstairs to future our knowledge of the various planets we visit," replies Thorne," now if you'll just follow me I'll show you to you tunnel access panel."

Thorne led Xander to the end of the room, sure enough there was a panel with the same faint white wrench Xander was so used to seeing.

"Take this map, follow it to your new quarters it should already be supplied with the layout of the ship, your required tools, and all of your belongings we brought over. Use this comm to signal me if you run into any trouble, "Thorne said as he handed Xander a comm," The Roman is a big ship son, I need you to know every nook and cranny and learn he ships tunnels as fast as possible. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir understood."

With that Thorne left for the bridge. Xander removed the panel and crawled into the tunnel, it was a bit larger than the tunnels on the Tombstone, probably in case he needed to transport parts for replacement. Faint yellow lines a light on the tunnels side illuminated the tunnel to some degree, it was certainly easier to see in the Roman's tunnels.

Xander took the tablet with the map that Thorne gave him and began his travel to his new room, the trip to considerably longer then Xander had thought, granted the Roman was larger than the Tombstone and he did get lost. Xander made it a top priority to memorize the ships tunnel layout and to travel through them faster to increase his efficiency. Xander arrived at the point the map told him to be but he didn't see his room, in fact there was only a red button, so like any sane person he pressed it.

The end of the tunnel open to reveal a room. It had to be Xander's new room and it was spectacular, the room was shaped like a dodecahedron (12 sided spherical object) with many tunnel access panels on the walls all leading in different directions, there were computer screens on other walls displaying layouts of the ship, ship system conditions, ship maps, and time charts of ship operations. There was no bed but Xander noticed that an access panel on the ground had an orange light above it with the word quarters next to it. Xander removed it to see a ladder leading to a well lit room, he climbed down the 7 foot ladder to find himself a Cube room about 7 foot by 7 foot and 7 feet high with a double sized bed, a desk with a monitor, a closet with uniforms in it, a bookshelf with what looked like manuals and blueprint layouts. He noticed that sitting on his bed was a small stack of files, papers, books which he examined, just a basic overview of the ship like when it was built, its total carrying capacity of over 1000 people, locations of key ship systems.

"This is amazing," Xander thought," this is way better than on the Tombstone, finally an actual room. I better get started on learning the tunnels of my new home."

Xander pulled up the chair to his desk on opened he ship layout on the monitor and spent the next few hours reading up. It was all so confusing to him, the Roman was so much larger than the Tombstone he almost confused many of the tunnel ways but thanks to his persistency he had the ships layout pretty much down more or less, he really hoped he had it down. He noticed to the clock on his desk indicated that the time was 11:38 PM.

"Crap I didn't know it was that late, better hit the sack," Xander thought, "gonna have a busy day tomorrow and I need to be rested."

**The Following Day. . .**

The clock hit 6 and the alarm sounded waking Xander from his slumber, he got out of bed and turned off his clocks alarm. He always got up at 6 in the morning to prepare for the day of work ahead of him, he washed up in his shower he found and put his new uniform on. Unlike his previous brown jumpsuit this one was black with orange strips going down his chest and he had pocket line his legs and torso, the suit had the words Wey-Yu in yellow on his back. It fit Xander almost perfectly, it was a little long on the legs but he just rolled them up and as he was about to leave he found a pair a goggles on the ground.

Probably fell of the box Xander thought as he picked them up, they looked like the matched his suit same decals and colors so he tried them onto find that they fit to his head. Examining the goggles he found a series a small buttons on the right eyepiece, Xander pressed one and his vision became bright green, the words night vision appeared in the top right of Xander field of vision. He pressed another on and his view exploded into bright colors, the words Thermal vision appeared to him so Xander tried another button that turned his vision pitch black, he couldn't see anything but when he turned his head he saw blue lines running the length of his room. Xander saw in his field of view the words energy vision appear, he look at his hands and saw a faint blue outline which made Xander remember humans produced small amount of bio-electricity in the muscle when they moved. He found that the last two buttons adjusted the zoom function the goggles had.

"Holy crap this is the best," Xander thought with excitement, "This is going to make my job so much easier, I can't believe I didn't know about this until now I can't wait to try this baby out."**  
**

Asif on command his monitor turned on and began to display a message.

**TUNNEL RAT, REPORT TO CHIEF ENGINEER IMEDITLY**

"Well time for work." Xander thought as he climbed to ladder into his 12 sided tunnel room, he looked at the ships layout and found that his room was in the center of the ship which would make travel easier. He found the engineering deck, it was about a 15 minute trip so he found the correct access tunnel and began his trip. He turned his goggles to night vision to make it easier to see and swiftly moved to the engineering deck.

As Xander approached the engineering deck he began to hear to hear to steady hum of machines and engines operating, he found the Chief Engineers office. He moved to the tunnel above the office and knocked on the tunnel.

"Come in," the chief said expecting a workers to enter through the door. He was pretty surprised when he saw Xander drop down from the ceiling.

"Well I'll be darned, we actually will be having a tunnel rat. I thought the Captain was just pulling my leg," the man said, "I'm Clutch McGee, Roman's chief engineer."

"Nice to meet you sir I'm Xander."

"Gotta last name son?"

"Yes my last name is Valkyr (Vall-cur) sir"

"Ok Mr. Valkyr it's nice to meet you, and quit with all that sir nonsense please call me Clutch"

"Sure thing, thank you si… Clutch"

Clutch was a big man, he was tall and had broad shoulders and large arms only adding to the fact that he had to be a strong man he probably got that strength from his work. He was bald except for the hair growing on the side of his head with a good sized beard. He had a wrinkled face with faint scars scattered a crossed it with his brown eyes that were beginning to sink in.

"Alright Xander," Clutch said as he rose from his desk, "let me show you what you'll be doing here on the Roman."

"Clutch, if you don't mind I already know what a tunnel rat does," replied Xander, "I fix problems and malfunctions before they become noticeable to the rest of the engineering crew and manage the security of ship docking."

"That's true but that was when you were on the Tombstone, but this is the Roman a military vessel it's a lot different here. See you'll still preform your original duties but you'll also be working hand in hand with my staff during an operation, incognito of course which reminds me take this."

Clutch handed Xander a mask with the same color scheme as his uniform with two large opening for the eyes.

"Put your goggles in that mask so you can still use the functions and still be unknown."

"Thank you but Clutch won't your staff noticed a masked man helping them?" Xander asked but clutch just had a smile on his face.

"Lad you'll only be helping them if we have a huge repair order and besides seeing masked people in engineering is completely normal it happens all the time. Anyway in certain case when the Roman sends a large force planet side you may be sent to repair any equipment that may become damaged."

"Why, I'm a Tunnel rat I fix the ship not vehicles on the ground."

"Xander you have to break out of your old way of thinking, no one but key personal even know of your existence on the Roman and since you fix small problems before they become noticeable no one will know you're gone. Besides if I'm correct your file says you're certified to work on almost any machine or vehicle that Wey-Yu has to offer."

"Yes that may be true but I'm just a little scared, not of going to a new planet it's just you said I would be sent if they sent a force down I'm just afraid of getting seriously hurt."

"Lad you don't realize you wouldn't see any action, you'd just repair damaged equipment."

"Ok, when you put it like that I guess it was really silly of me to complain I'll ready for duty whenever you need me Clutch."

Clutch walked over to Xander and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Xander you'll learn life on the Roman is different but it can also be fun, why don't I sh. . ." Was all Clutch could say before his comm started to ring, he walked over to it a picked it up.

"Hello. Why yes he's here. Ok. Sure thing. I understand. Ok I'll send him up now."

"Who was that Clutch."

"Well lad, head up to deck 17 and go straight to the medical ward, and brace yourself son that place is pretty dangerous."

"Whys that?"

"Just go and you'll see for yourself."

"Ok then, it was nice meeting you Clutch," Xander said as he jumped up grab to tunnel panel he left off and pulled himself up. "See you later"

Xander moved through the tunnels until he found a ladder that led to the upper and lower decks, he climbed the ladder for about 10 minutes pacing himself as to next become exhausted from the climb. Once he got to deck 17 he pulled out his map just to make sure he knew was he was going, eventually he found the tunnel above the medical ward where he heard shouting.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean it honestly," a man said, "please forgive me."

"LIKE HELL I'LL FORGIVE YOU, NOW GET YOUR SORRY ASS OUT OF MY OFFICE THIS MINUTE!" said a woman who was clearly angry.

Xander heard the medical ward doors shut so he removed the access panel looked in saw that it was clear and dropped in. He looked around the room to find many monitors, medical beds, shelves filled with medical items.

"Well hello there," a voice said from behind Xander. "Who might you be cutie?"

Xander turned around and immediately realized what Clutch meant when he said this place was dangerous.

**AUTHORS NOTE: WELL I MADE THIS CHAPTER ABOUT 700 WORDS LONGER THEN MY FIRST ONE SO THAT'S A STEP FORWARD IN THE QUEST TO WRITE LONGER CHAPTERS. ANYWAY I'LL HAVE TO CHANGED THE FREQUNECY OF HOW MUCH I'LL UPDATE THE STORY UNTIL NEW YEARS BECAUSE ITS DECEMBER SO DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? IT MEANS THAT FINALS ARE ALMOST HERE AND I'M BEING SHEELED WITH REVIEW HOMEWORK SO I'LL HOVE TO FOCUS ON GETTING IT DONE BUT I'LL WORK ON NEW CHAPTERS IN MY FREE TIME. ALSO I'VE BEEN TOYING WITH THE IDEA TO WRITE SOME PARTS OF THE STORY IN XANDER'S ****P.O.V.**** IN LATER CHAPTERS WHEN THE CONFLICT REALLY SETS IN, WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK? **


	4. story update1

**I'm sorry for such a long wait for new chapters, after my finals were done I visited my grandparents in Texas for a week and they don't have internet and they day I was supposed to leave my grandfather passed away and I had to stay and extra week. Though I have returned home it may be awhile before I upload the next chapter, but have no fear in this absence of chapters I am continuing to make a great forth chapter so expect more in the following weeks. To improve the coming chapters I have taken many ideas from the reviews and have decided to implement them into future chapters to improve the quality and give the story a better sense of life. Thank you all for your patience. **


	5. Chapter 4

Standing in front of Xander was 6 foot 3 inches of pure woman and a devil from his time at the facility was standing in front of him and in an instant Xander became filled with fear.

"Uhh…Wahh…you..h-how.?" sputtered Xander in his surprise.

"Well that's no way to greet and old friend," said the woman," it's been at least two years since we last saw each other y'know."

"I'm sorry, you're right," Xander said, "How have you been Catherine?"

From Xander's first days at the Training Facility he rarely had contact with any person beside his instructors besides Catherine. Catherine Dame, she was 17 when Xander was brought to the Wey-Yu Training Facility and studying to be a medical officer and because her mother Serena Dame was a high ranking Wey-Yu officer Catherine got the best classes with the best instructors. Serena's influence in the system was mainly to give Catherine the best chance possible to become a medical officer. Due to her mother's plans Catherine was the number one student in all her classes and was even able to take some of the advance classes where they dealt with actual injures people. Xander would have never met Catherine if he had remembered to unplug power coupling FB6-A in his final performance test for electrical power systems.

**4 YEARS AGO . . .**

"Aghh, shit its hot in here," Xander thought," okay now to divert power from non-critical systems back to life-support."

Xander was on his back in a cramped space with a wall of light on top of him with variously colored lights and labels. He was rapidly splicing wires, rearranging cables, and making make-shift power connects so he could pass his test, and it was a bitch. The test was timed with setting of a heavily damaged ship losing power with critical life-support, the objective was to squeeze every bit of power from non-critical systems to power the failing life-support. Xander had already found a hub for many of electrical pathways and began disabling system that was wasting power and then he made his way through the "damaged" tunnels to the closest power hub. Once Xander was there he began taking wires and splicing them to make new connections to redirect power to life-support, rearranging cables to increase the power flow. Everything was going well, life-support was getting power, he still had time left, and his make-shift connections was holding, the only thing left to do was to initiate the electrical lock, a new technique Wey-Yu made to lock the way the current would flow, the only problem was the lever that initiated the lock constantly had current running through it to prevent any unauthorized personal from sabotaging the ship. That's where power coupling FB6-A came in, FB6-A directed current to the lever and once it was unplugged all the current running through it would be redirected to the lock location.

This is where the problem came in to play, Xander went to unplug FB6-A but trouble showed up for Xander's displeasure for him to find the coupling was stuck, he couldn't unplug it and with time running out and some quick thinking Xander came up with a solution that would force him to meet Catherine. Xander took off his shoe that was rubber insolated and started hammering the lever slowly forcing it down until he was able to get the lever to force the electrical lock which he pulled off with 3.12 seconds left on the clock. Xander passed the test but due to him not unplugging FB6-A a electrical circuit overloaded and popped throwing silicon everywhere and all over Xander's face, Xander thought it was just dust so he just wiped it off his face not knowing his life would be in serious danger.

A few hours later Catherine was about to leave her medical class in the Med-Ward after picking up for her instructor who had to leave early when to doors burst open. Three men was pushing a gurney with a kid on it, the men were shouting for Dr. Hemms the instructor. Shocked Catherine ran to the men asking what was wrong when she saw the kid on the gurney was he pale and barely breathing, the men asked her where Hemms was but when she told them that he left early the men asked her if she could save the kid, which she agreed to since she was Hemms top student.

Catherine rushed the gurney to the med-bay asking what was wrong with the kid, the men didn't know they said he was just eating when he flew over and burst into a nasty coughing fit and began convulsing. Catherine brought the gurney to where the medical examinations were done and pulled out a syringe and took a blood sample and began a full scan on it while she took the kid's temperature, he was burning up 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Catherine took his pulse, it was rapid and prepared an oxygen saturation test, she found his cells were bare of oxygen. Catherine was panicking, she didn't know what wrong with him and the blood test was only a quarter of the way done when she heard a slight rasp, it was the kid.

"Si..s…sil," Xander sputtered out.

"Wait say that again. What did you say?" Catherine yelled.

"S…Si..Sili….Silicon." Xander said with a faint voice.

"Of course," Catherine thought," humans are carbon-based life forms and can't handle silicon by itself since it absorbs too much of the bodies moisture."

Catherine opened a cabinet and pulled out a plastic package of pure H2O, attached a tube to it, and inserted the needle in the kids' right arm and she inject and IV into his left arm. Catherine watched the kid hoping that it worked, as time went on color returned to his skin and his breathing improved. His O2 saturation tests came back with increased O2 levels in his blood. It took about three hours but the kid eventually was able to stand up and speak again and Catharine gave him another check to see if was in good health.

"Okay you look to be in good health, "stated Catherine, "Just be sure to keep hydrated and you should be all fixed up by tomorrow."

"Thanks umm what was your name? "Asked the kid.

"My names Catherine Dame. May I have your name?"

"Names Xander, Xander Valkry."

"Ok Xander you look good, just remember to see me tomorrow."

"Thanks, see ya tomorrow."

After Xander's second visit he stayed after and the two talked about things like common interests, studies, and history which Xander never revealed his to keep the tunnel rat secret safe. Xander didn't know why but whenever he could he would sneak out to see Catherine to which they became friends but where Xander thought of Catherine only as a friend he could tell she thought of him quite differently and it quickly became awkward when they met as Catherine started making subtle moves on him to the point she out right tried to kiss him without warning. Xander manage to stop her and leave to go back to his quarters but after that Xander never could regain the first relationship of being friends. A year later when Xander was 14 Catherine left the facility to move on to more advanced training and studies and Xander thought he'd never see her again which saddened him a bit but he eventually moved on and continued with his training.

**PRESENT DAY . . .**

"Well the last two years have been pretty good Xander, I passed my medical exams and finished first in my class," said Catherine, "I'm also the _Roman's _chief medical officer."

"Really you're the chief medical officer" Xander said sarcastically, "I find that hard to believe even for you."

"Fine, then I'll prove it" Catherine said as she walked to her desk and pulled out a stack of papers. "Have a look at these there my medical exam results."

Xander took the stack of papers and flip through them, there were various papers and notes of Catharine's exceptional medical knowledge and ability and at the end of the stack were her final medical exam results and Xander couldn't believe what he saw.

"A…a…a..A perfect score, but that can't be the highest anybody has ever scored was a 93! How did you do this?"

"Oh it was pretty easy I just spent a crap ton of my free time after class and studying, taking pre-exams, here have a look at this."

Catherine went to her office and removed a frame from the wall and handed it to Xander.

"What's this," Xander asked as he examined the frame, "A diploma from the Weyland-Yutani School of Medicine, and you were the Valedictorian? Oh now that's just showing off!"

"Well you said that you didn't believe that I was the chief medical officer, by the way the acceptance letter to his post is on the back of the frame."

Xander look and sure enough it was there, Catherine Dame accepted as the _Roman's_ Chief Medical Officer.

"Ok fine I believe you," Xander exclaimed "Now what did you call me up here for my medical records should all be up-to-date?"

"Oh nothing you're fine. I just called you here to see you again that's all."

"Well it was nice seeing you again Catherine, but I have to go my job is important and I can't waste my time chatting with you. I'm sorry but I have to go, I have a job to do," Xander said as he began removing the wall panel," Maybe I'll come and talk to you when I'm done."

And with that Xander went into the tunnel and placed the panel back. He began crawling back to his quarters he couldn't believe that Catherine was on the ship, his life just became a whole lot harder with her on board. Knowing Catherine she'd probably call Xander for no other reason than to talk and to ask if he'd visit her quarters. Xander continued down the tunnel ready to get some actual work down so he headed back to Clutch's office to see if he could do anything to get Catherine off his mind.

Xander knew he had gotten close to engineering as he could smell the faint order of oil lingering in the air and heard the faint clashing of metal. Continuing on his way Xander reached Clutch's office and was about to drop in but he stopped when heard a voice. It wasn't the voice of Clutch, this voice was deep and had a slight rasp to it. Xander displaced the ceiling panel just enough to see inside but not enough to be noticed, inside he saw Clutch talking to a black man. The Man was tall with broad shoulders, Xander couldn't get a good look at his face from his angle but he could make out their conversation.

"…Engineering needs to be prepared to send as many men as they can with the soldiers," the unknown man said, "keep in mind that we expect heavy casualties so your men must be ready."

"I understand Johnson but I can't send these men to their death so I must decl…"

"Chief Engineer Clutch you understand that these men of yours signed up for the job with full knowledge that they could be sent into a comb at zone with no return," Johnson yelled, "You know that we're dealing with a heavily armed Wey-Yu Splinter Cell right, we've got direct orders from High Command to go straight to their front door and kill every one of those damn traitors and secure the research data stored there."

"Yes I .."

"And that if any specimens were to fall into the wrong hands then all of humanity could be put at risk!"

"Ok Johnson I understand, I'll tell my men. When do we start preparation?"

"The assault begins in four days, have all your men ready, all of them."

That last phrase struck Xander, as a tunnel rat he was technically under Clutches authority. He wondered if they would even send a kid into combat, and the Wey-Yu splinter cell thing completely confused him. Whatever the case Xander had to get some answers and prepare for the worst.

**Author's Note: Ok I know it's been awhile since I put up an actual chapter, when I got home from my grandparents I got a new laptop and I was transferring all my data it. Unfortunately some of the data was corrupted like future chapters for this story, ideas for new stories, my chemistry notes for stoichiometry, APUSH notes, etc. So because of that and my bad memory I am going to have to recreate those future chapters from scratch. **

**BTW I know that whole scene with Xander dying from Silicon was awful, I just couldn't come up with a situation for Xander and Catherine to meet so I wrote the scene from my experience when I was 6 and ate some of those silica balls you find in packaging. On the other had this new semester for me is pretty tough so I'll probably be writing only on the weekends until further notice.**


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